Apr 27 2010
Iraq Election Outcome Still in Flux
An electoral court in Iraq has disqualified two winning candidates in the parliamentary elections held in March, potentially changing the outcome of who leads a ruling coalition. Both candidates, one of who was aligned with the Iraqiya party, headed by Ayad Allawi, were disqualified on the grounds of an affiliation with former President Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party. Allawi’s coalition had won 91 out of 325 seats in the Parliament, a narrow plurality over the 89 seats won by incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki’s State of Law Party. The special electoral court also disqualified about 50 candidates who lost the election. Their votes will now have to be discarded, leading to a numerical re-evaluation across the board of who won and who lost the elections. Nine more candidates who won seats face judgment from the court for Baathist affiliation, and the court has also ordered a recount of votes in the capital, Baghdad. Allawi’s coalition has denounced the moves, claiming they are “politically motivated and could be detrimental to the whole democratic process in Iraq.” The political confusion is likely to delay the formation of a government, which in turn could delay the withdrawal of US troops set to happen at the end of next year. Meanwhile, more than seventy people were killed last Friday in a series of bombings in Baghdad. The bombings were most likely all related, targeting only Shiite areas, striking mosques, residences and stores, in the deadliest attacks this year. Only 4 days earlier, US and Iraqi forces had killed two Al Qaeda leaders operating in Iraq.
GUEST: Robert Naiman, Policy Director Just Foreign Policy
Read more at www.justforeignpolicy.org.
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